Sure. This could be a picture of a man swimming in a lake. I’m not denying that. But apparently Russian scientists are convinced that a monster lurks beneath the depths of remote Lake Labynkyr in Siberia, and this photograph is part of the evidence.

Long thought to be the home of a gigantic creature known as “the Devil,” Lake Labynkyr became the centerpiece of a new cryptozoological study after sonar readings detected large objects beneath the water’s surface. A large, seemingly alive object was detected, far too large to be a normal fish.

Moscow scientist Lyudmila Emeliyanova, who recorded her own data from Lake Labynkyr, has since called for a scientific expedition in hopes of discovering the source of those strange readings.

Anecdotal evidence, folklore, and photographs like the one above, together with the bizarre sonar readings, do lead one to wonder just what’s going on.

Could it be a plesiosaur, as Scotland’s Loch Ness monster has been claimed to be? A giant rock? A really big fish? An elaborate hoax? Perhaps it’s nothing at all, and that really is just a guy in that picture up there.